Middle Earth

My slackness when it comes to blogging is so phenomenal, even I have trouble comprehending it. Will try better. Will likely fail.

On my most recent trip to NZ, I went and did dorky touristy things in a dorky touristy fashion with my family. Here are some snaps from our Hobbiton visit, where my dorky sister and I frolicked around with nerdish glee while mum despaired and reflected on a wasted lifetime of raising such dorky spawn*.

I don't think I've ever spoken to any Kiwis who have actually been to this tourist-trap of an ex-movie set, whereas people from everywhere else usually seem astonished that not everyone in NZ lives in a hole in the side of a hill (if I could, I would). I'm such a sucker for things like this though.

Here's a delightful scene of domestic life in the Shire. Unfortunately, our hairy feet are concealed by footware.

I had to edit the water and sky to make it LESS distractingly blue in these photos. Seriously, NZ, stop being so pretty and stuff already or I might have to move back and change my name to Bilbo or something.

And what better way to end a tour than with a drink in the Green Dragon Inn (which they set on fire for the first film and later reconstructed)

* just kidding, mum like it too, especially the immaculately curated vegetable garden.

P.S. This is what happens when you ask my mum to take a photo, and make sure to get the entirety of our heights plus the giant beer barrel in, in the centre of the frame >_<

Photos taken at Hobbiton, Matamata in January 2016.

Cold beaches and twilight vistas

During my last NZ visit, I took some time off from lying around my mum's house playing Pokemon to visit my friend Melissa in Whakatāne. We did a trip out to White Island (photos to come later) and she also showed  me around some of the scenic spots in and near the town she's (grudgingly) called home for the past couple of years. In classic NZ style, this called for beach visits despite the late-autumn chill, and finding the highest point from which to survey the environs. Luckily, being in the Bay of Plenty meant that we had plenty of sunshine to keep us (vaguely) warm(ish).

Even after two years in Sydney, I'm still not used to the lack of proper hills here. I read somewhere once that the appreciation of aesthetic landscapes may have evolved from the survival advantage conferred by being able to see predators from a height and better strategise your attack or retreat using your view. It's certainly true that I'm never entirely comfortable with my whereabouts in Sydney because I can't climb up the nearest hill to see which way all the roads run like I used to do in New Zealand. Maybe this evolutionary advantage works better for the geographically challenged like myself.

And now here's a dude lying down, just chillaxing in the water, as you do.

Photos taken around the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand in May 2015.